The last thing he needs are two potential homicides

FICTION

"Through the Evil Days" by Julia Spencer-Fleming. On a frigid January night, Chief of Police Russ Van Alstyne and the Rev. Clare Fergusson are called to the scene of a raging fire. The extent of the tragedy isn't known until the next day, when the charred remains of a man and woman are recovered - along with evidence showing they were shot execution style. The last thing Russ needs are two potential homicides. He's struggling with the prospect of impending fatherhood, and his new wife is not at all happy with his proposal for their long-delayed honeymoon: a week ice-fishing at a remote Adirondack lake. St. Alban's Church is still in turmoil over the Fergusson's news that she's five and a half months pregnant - but only two and a half months married. Worried her post-deployment drinking and drug use may have damaged the baby, she awaits the outcome of the bishop's investigation into her "unpriestly" behavior: a scolding, censure, or permanent suspension. When Officer Hadley Knox discovers that the dead couple fostered an 8-year-old girl who was a recent liver donee, the search for the killer takes on a new and terrible urgency. With no access to immunosuppressant drugs, transplant rejection will kill the girl in a matter of days. As a deadly ice storm downs power lines and immobilizes roads, Russ and Clare search desperately for the truth about the missing child.

"Bellman & Black" by Diane Setterfield. Caught up in a moment of boyhood competition, William Bellman recklessly aims his slingshot at a rook resting on a branch, killing the bird instantly. It is a small but cruel act, and is soon forgotten. By the time he is grown, with a wife and children of his own, William seems to have put the whole incident behind him. It was as if he never killed the thing at all. But rooks don't forget. Years later, when a stranger mysteriously enters William's life, his fortunes begin to turn - and the terrible and unforeseen consequences of his past indiscretion take root. In a desperate bid to save the only precious thing he has left, he enters into a rather strange bargain, with an even stranger partner. Together, they found a decidedly macabre business. And Bellman & Black is born.

"Mirage" by Clive Cussler and Jack Du Brul. In October 1943, a U.S. destroyer sailed out of Philadelphia and supposedly vanished, the result of a Navy experiment with electromagnetic radiation. The story was considered a hoax - but now Juan Cabrillo and his Oregon colleagues aren't so sure. There is talk of a new weapon soon to be auctioned, something very dangerous to America's interests, and the rumors link it to the great inventor Nikola Tesla, who was working with the Navy when he died in 1943. Was he responsible for the experiment? Are his notes in the hands of enemies? As Cabrillo races to find the truth, he discovers there is even more at stake than he could have imagined - but by the time he realizes it, he may already be too late.

NONFICTION

"Dot Complicated: Untangling Our Wired Lives" by Randi Zuckerberg. Zuckerberg offers an entertaining and essential guide to understanding how technology and social media influence and inform our lives online and off. Zuckerberg has been on the frontline of the social media movement since Facebook's early days and her following six years as a marketing executive for the company. Her part memoir, part how-to manual addresses issues of privacy, online presence, networking, etiquette and the future of social change.

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The last thing he needs are two potential homicides

'Through the Evil Days' by Julia Spencer-Fleming. On a frigid January night, Chief of Police Russ Van Alstyne and the Rev. Clare Fergusson are called to the scene of a raging fire.